Thursday, March 12, 2015

Love "for" God vs. Loving God

Many of us are right with God in our devotion but not in our
heart condition.

The miracle is always in the transformation of the heart: to
God, to others and to ourselves. All of this takes time. But we must begin. We
must put down our devotional books and church attendance and our love “for” God,
and instead love God. In this we give Him total access to our hearts and minds
that Jesus Christ might attend them via His Holy Spirit, which is already in us
if we have accepted Christ as Lord and Savior.

This is what it comes down to: no more being about
God, but God Himself: changing us, convicting us, comforting us, admonishing
us, strengthening us, revealing Himself to us and revealing ourselves to us. Heart
change occurs with the removal of all worldly mediators, all postures that keep
us “about” God—having a love for Him that does not result in He alone
having His full and complete way with us.

So often my devotion for God has been for the purpose of
covering up or not dealing with an unclear conscience before Him.

The focus has been on my devotion to God, not
on God Himself and His accountability.

Clear away
anything that is originating from me, and the Holy Spirit can then
begin its work. We will know He is working when we see things about ourselves
that we know to be true but wish weren’t. We accept these disturbing truths
about ourselves when we agree with God regarding them and trust Him in patience
to root sin out, loving Him enough to let Him firmly establish progress in us
for His
glory, not ours.

Active devotion to God desires His Holiness (which emanates from
Him, not us) and surrenders in a trusting willingness to let Him make
us Holy and clear our conscience before Him. Devotion to God is the intentional
and active living out of the Holy Spirit’s voice and Word of Christ based on
what God has revealed to us about the condition of our hearts.

copyright Barb Harwood

“Surely you desire truth in the inner parts,

you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.” Psalm 51:6

“Yet I am always with you;

you hold me by my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel,

And afterward you will take me into glory.

Whom have I in heaven but you?

And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

But God is the strength of my heart

And my portion forever.” Psalm 73:23-26

“This is what the LORD says:

‘Cursed is the one who trusts in man,

who depends on flesh for his strength

and whose heart turns away from the LORD.

He will be like a bush in the wastelands;

he will not see prosperity when it comes.

He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,

in a salt land where no one lives.

But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,

whose confidence is in him.

He will be like a tree planted by the water

that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes;

its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought

and never fails to bear fruit.’

The heart is deceitful above all things

and beyond cure.

Who can understand it?

‘I the LORD search the heart

and examine the mind,

to reward a man according to his conduct,

according to what his deeds deserve.’” Jeremiah 17:5-10

“You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about
you:

‘These people honor me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me.

They worship me in vain;

Their teachings are but rules taught by men.’” Matthew
15:7-8

“For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except
Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with
much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive
words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might
not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” 1 Corinthians 2:2-5

“Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:

‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,

but a body you prepared for me;

with burnt offerings and sin offerings

you were not pleased.

Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the
scroll—

I have come to do your will, O God.’”

Hebrews 10:5-7

“And by that will, we have been made holy through the
sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hebrews 10:10

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of
our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its
shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who
endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and
lose heart.

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the
point of shedding your blood.” Hebrews 12:2-4

“See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks...” Hebrews
12:25a

“...and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through
Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” Hebrews 13:21b